My Summer
by Hanspam
Summary: It's finished!!! But do you want a sequel?
1. Default Chapter

My summer  
  
Disclaimer: I own nothing. But I wish I did.  
  
Summary: A summer that takes place in a time that never existed...basically before Destiny happened, Tess turned up etc. Everybody's happy, but not for long.  
  
"So. Explain to me again why we're here." Liz Parker said tiredly, following her best friend Maria to the end of the shopping mall, where her favourite shops were located.  
  
"Don't you see, Liz? We're here simply because we can be here! There's no school to panic over, no work until tomorrow, no, well, no significant others to tie us down." Maria DeLuca's happy face turned into one of faraway sorrow, but only for a moment. The cheerful facade was soon back again, if only to keep Liz from falling into yet another deep depression.  
  
Liz and Maria had, to put it bluntly, been abandoned. Max Evans and Michael Guerin, their other halves, as it were, had left Liz and Maria behind with their unwanted junior year textbooks, or so it seemed. School had finished on the Wednesday before, and neither of them had heard from the boys, or Max's sister Isabel, since.  
  
Of course, there was the fact that Max, Isabel and Michael were...not of this earth. That did give them some sort of reason to go traipsing around the New Mexico land, and it was taken as read that Liz and Maria, along with Isabel's flirt-object, Alex, were not to ask any questions.  
  
It didn't mean that they couldn't moan about it in private, especially as the three 'couples' hadn't been getting on well particularly lately.  
  
Max and Liz still had the whole 'he's an alien, I'm not' issue to sort out. Maria and Michael had communication problems, as in they didn't know how to, and Alex and Isabel just weren't seeing eye-to-eye.  
  
Hence the mall raiding.  
  
"Come on, Liz, I want to go and find that new store that Jaynie in my biology class told me about. It's got all these strange kinds of ornaments, and oils, and other sorts of stuff," Maria finally took Liz by the hand, after she refused to co-operate, and together they walked to the far end of Roswell's only mall, in search for a store called 'The Missing Pieces'.  
  
  
"I don't understand why we have to stay for so long," Isabel complained, as she lifted a purple sports bag into the Evan's beat up car. "Why can't we just stay out there for the weekend, and come back on Tuesday? There's no need for us to be gone so long, and I don't want us causing suspicion."  
  
"Isobel, there is every need. If what you saw in your dream was correct-" and here he aimed his gaze at his sister "-then we need to find the Truth Teller. We can't scour the whole of the desert in one weekend."  
  
"That's right, Isobel, how could you have forgotten?" Michael said sarcastically from his vantage viewing point of the back of the Jeep. "After all, how could we only give up four days of our lives searching for the Truth Teller, something which, if intact, could tell us everything about our home planet? How could you. Your fellow Czechoslovakians are disgusted with you."  
  
Isobel sighed and slumped into the passenger seat. "I know it's important. But a week? You know that Alex worries, and before you say anything, Liz and Maria aren't exactly going to be happy if you go without telling anyone."  
  
Michael coughed, and then sheepishly said, "I left Maria a note at the Crashdown."  
  
"What?" Max yelled. "What did you say in it?"  
  
"Nothing major. Just that we'd all be gone for at least a week, and not to worry about us."  
  
"Well, that makes everything fine then," Max said, glaring at his best friend.  
  
"Oh, and you didn't even give Liz one thought after you decided we were coming out here?" Isobel asked. She then added quietly, "Still, she's going to know. I knew you wouldn't do anything, so I left notes for her and Alex at the Crashdown as well. Just telling them that we'd be fine."  
  
Max couldn't take any more of this outpouring, so he simply said, "Fine. Whatever. Has everybody got everything?"  
  
"Aye aye, capt'n," Michael said, raising his hand in salute. A quick check in the rear-view mirror, and Max, Isobel and Michael were on their way, to find the object that held clues to their destiny.   
  
To be continued... 


	2. Chapter 2: On the way there

My Summer Part 2   
  
"Wow," Maria said, looking around as she entered the sweet-smelling shop. "This place looks amazing."  
  
And despite all her doubts about horoscopes, tarot cards and aromatherapy, which was Maria's forte, Liz had to agree. The tiny shop was crammed to the ceilings with antique clothes, tiny bottles of essential oils, beaded bracelets and ornaments. She slowly walked over to a rickety shelf and picked up a minute carving of a devilish looking pixie. Its wooden eyes were strangely expressive, giving off an air of mischief and misbehaviour. Her attention was soon diverted by a flicker of light to the right of her, where stood the most amazing object that she had ever seen.  
  
It was a spherical shape, and was made out of a substance that Liz couldn't quite identify. What was the most amazing thing about it, however, was the colour of it. One moment a midnight-blue, the next, a deep, violent purple. It didn't even have to move for the colour to change, the swirls seemed totally natural.  
  
"Wow, look at this, Maria," Liz said softly, calling her friend over from the aromatherapy olis. "What d you think this is?"  
  
Maria came over and looked at the item. "I don't know, but it's beautiful. Look inside it, Liz. You see all the shapes?"  
  
"That is a dangerous object," said a voice from behind the girls. "It can do so many things, yet on some days none at all."  
  
Liz and Maria turned quickly; if there was one thing that the past year had taught them, it was to be alert of strangers. The woman standing behind them didn't seem a threat to them, however. She was fragile-looking, with waist-length silver hair. She wore long flowing purple cotton trousers, and a beaded waistcoat.  
  
"Do you like my shop?" the lady asked them. Liz and Maria nodded, and she smiled. "A lifetime of wares to be sold...some of these are my own possessions, yet why should I let them go to waste at my home, when new people can gain enjoyment from them?"  
  
"Did you ever own this?" Liz asked eagerly. Something...something that she couldn't define was drawing her to it, it seemed to be that it was her own.  
  
The owner of the shop inclined her head. "Yes, yes that is my own. I found it when I was travelling through the desert, many years ago with my husband."  
  
"You found it in the desert?" Maria gasped. "Isn't that a bit..." She didn't finish her sentence, but Liz knew what she was thinking. The aliens in the community had found so many things to do with their background in the desert. Could this mysterious object have anything to do with their friends?  
  
"Oh no, not actually in the desert. In a little shop, a lot like this one actually. I saw it, and just knew that I had to have it." She sighed, her eyes faraway as if focusing on a time gone before. "Henry bought it for me straight away. It had pride of place in our family room for such a long time."  
  
"If you don't mind me asking, why do you want to sell it if it has so much sentimental value?" Liz asked quietly. The lady smiled, and said,  
  
"I just thought that someone else might like it. After all, I'm just an old lady, and I have so much to try when Henry retires. We're going to go paragliding for our fortieth wedding anniversary."  
  
"Wow, that's great," Maria said.   
  
"I think I'll buy this, if that's okay," Liz said, turning it over and over in her hands, fascinated by the inner swirls inside the circle.  
  
"Of course it's okay, my dear. And call me Sylvia. I feel as though you two girls are my friends. That will be $30, please."  
  
Liz rifled through her purse,and eventualy came up with the thirty dollars she needed. Handing it over, she said, "I'm Liz,and this is Maria."  
  
"Nice to meet you Liz and Maria." Sylvia said. "Here is your purchase, Liz," she said, handing over the bag with the sphere inside.  
  
"Do you have any idea what it's called?" Maria asked. "I'm going to feel really stupid if I say 'Please can I see the weird circle thing?'"  
  
Sylvia laughed. "The man that I bought it from over thirty years ago told me it was called a 'Truth-teller'. If you have a certain inner spirit, or gift, you can look into it's depths and find out anything that you wish to know about what has gone before, but never the future."  
  
"Did you ever see anything?" Liz asked excitedly.  
  
"Oh yes, but only once." Sylvia said mysteriously. "My husband had told me that he'd gone to the bowling alley, but I was suspicious to say the least. I looked into the Teller, and behold! I saw that he had been planning a surprise to celebrate the anniversary of our first kiss."  
  
Maria and Liz looked at each other, wondering if maybe the Teller wasn't all they had thought it would be.  
  
"Or maybe it was the fact that I have an exceptionally honed wife's intutition, and a fantastic memory for dates," Sylvia said. "I always confuse the two. Anyway, I'll be seeing you again, girls. Have a nice day!"  
  
  
The three had been there for three hours, searching through the vast expanse of New Mexico desert. Isobel had found an arrowhead and some beads, Max had found a tiny knife, and Michael had found nothing at all. They were getting desperate, the June day was so humid that already they were exhausted.  
  
"Look, I know we said a week out here, but this is ridiculous Max," Isobel complained, wearily running a hand through her sweat-soaked hair. "It's June, boiling hot, and we've found enough things to make me believe that we're not searching an alien crash site but a Native American burial site, or war site, or something. As much as this is important to me..."  
  
"We just want to go home, Max," Michael finished. "We all have issues back at Roswell that we shouldn't have left this long. You know that as well as I do. Perhaps we can come back later in the month."  
  
"There'll be too many tourists here by then, all wanting to see some authentic desert," Max replied tersely, digging up a small patch of dirt next to a low hanging cave entrance. "We can't just give up now. If we leave it too late, then some unsuspecting housewife from Ohio will pick it up and use it as a doorstop or something."  
  
"Isabel, can you think of anything distinctive about the area where you saw it in your dream?" Michael asked impatiently. Even though he would have died rather than admit it to anyone, he wanted to see Maria. He knew that she would have loved to come along and help with the search, and have made it more fun, no doubt. And even though he was normally terrible at picking up emotions from other people, he knew that Isobel and Max were missing Alex and Liz too, more than they would care to let other people know about.  
  
"I can't think of anything, except that it was quite near civilization. I could see something that looked like a chimney in the distance. Not industrial though. Just a regular chimney."  
  
The dream had scared Isobel when she had dreamt it the previous night. All about a heavy orb-like object that pulsated with shimmering, moving colours. When she had drawn closer to it, she had seen something that still haunted her over twelve hours later.  
  
She had seen what could only have been her home planet. Sulphur yellow skies with red clouds floating lazily across it. Orange trees growing from arrid ground. And standing right in the front of her view, two figures. Staring at her, with a look of recognition. Her parents.  
  
Isobel could have stayed in her dream forever, taking in the first view of home that she had ever seen. And she had stayed in her dream for what seemed like hours, watching as her parents vainly tried to communicate with their daughter in a language that she didn't understand.  
  
But then, a loud, long boom had sounded. It nearly took Isobel off her feet, but her parents seemed unaffected. They walked away, bringing Isobel and the Truth Teller with them. After walking a short distance, they arrived at a huge transporter. The spaceship which had crashed in Roswell. In the year 1947.  
  
Just as her parents turned to say goodbye to her, Isobel woke in her bed, at the Evans's house. Knowing what she must tell Max and Michael, and what they must find. They had left Roswell less than an hour after Isobel had woken from her fateful dream. Only time for Isobel to pack a bag, write the notes to Alex and Liz and ask her adoptive mother to take them to the Crashdown Cafe. Time for Max to invent a Science experiment that meant taking the three of them out of town for a week, under the pretense that they wanted to get all their homework out of the way so that they could enjoy the summer. Time for Michael to write a letter to Maria, which said so little, but conveyed so much.  
  
Max looked at Isobel, and sighed. Why was this only important to him? It seemed that Michael would rather be at his job at the Crashdown where he could stare at a certain Miss DeLuca all day. Despite Isobel being the person who had actually seen the Truth teller, she was also being unusually vague, wanting to be home with Alex, listening to his testing of all the novelty cheese snacks specially made to sell in Roswell. And yes, there was no denying it. Max missed Liz so much that it made his heart hurt.   
  
They hadn't been together as a couple for some time, about five months. Yet still the hurt was there as acutely as it had been the day that Max told Liz it was too dangerous for them to be together. He only wanted to protect her, but he ended up causing her more hurt than he would have done if they had stayed together. In the past two months, they had endeavoured to be friends, but it wasn't working. Their names were still linked together, and both of them still believed that they were linked. Linked by the soul.   
  
Decisions, decisions. His heritage, or his only love?  
  
"Look, this obviously isn't working," Max said heavily. "None of us want to be here, and it's too hot to do anything really."  
  
Michael snorted, and dug out a waterbottle from his battered rucksack. "You can say that again, Maxwell. I know we want to find the Truth Teller, but can we please go home?"  
  
Max sighed. "Let's get back to the truck."  
  
To be continued...   
  



	3. Chapter 3: What is it?

My Summer Part 3  
  
Summary: Our favourite six Roswellians somehow avoid all the crossed wires I've set out for them.  
  
Disclaimer: I have no idea really, but how about a G.   
  
Thank you's: To Alex, thank you for keeping me sane!  
  
  
  
"So what does it do again?" Alex asked. He had met the two girls in the Crashdown Cafe which Liz's father owned, ten minutes ago, and was still confused about the whole concept of the Truth Teller. Which was fair enough, because it seemed as though the whole truth telling thing had never been proven.  
  
Liz opened her mouth to answer his question, but was cut off by one of Liz and Maria's fellow waitresses, Betsy.  
  
"These letters were dropped off for the three of you this morning," she drawled, dropping them on the Formica table and cracking her gum.   
  
"Thanks, Betsy," Maria said, picking up the white envelope that bore her name, and looking at it closely. "This is Michael's handwriting. I'd recognise it anywhere."  
  
"And this is Isobel's," Alex mused, looking at his also. "So's your's Liz," he said, craning his neck to look at her envelope.  
  
Liz ripped hers open, and read aloud the writing inside.  
  
"Dear Liz.  
My brother won't remember to let you know that we've gone, he's been self-dependant for so long. I had another dream last night. I saw something that could tell us about where we come from, it was somewhere in the desert. So that's where we've gone. We'll be there for about a week, camping in the cave we took you to that time. But don't try and find us.  
As much as we have grown to love you all, this is something that we have to do ourselves. Just like you will all be at the Crashdown right now, doing your bonding. This is our bonding.  
We've told Mom and Dad that we're on a Science trip, and will be gone for a week. Please back us up if you see them.  
Your friend, Isobel.  
PS I'll take care of Max for you."  
  
Liz put down the letter, not sure whether to be relieved that Max was not avoiding her, or anger that he hadn't written the comforting words that she needed to be reassured with. Before she could say anything, Alex tore his envelope open, and followed Liz's example of reading it aloud.  
  
"Dear Alex,  
I haven't got much time, having spent a long time trying to persuade Liz that we will be alright. We will be fine, Alex. This is something that we have to do.  
If Sheriff Valenti asks where we are, just go with the Science story. Or think on your feet, you're good at that (among other things of course!).  
Wait for me, I won't be long,  
All my love, Isabel"  
  
"Well, I can tell you what mine says without having to go through the formality of actually reading it. 'To Maria. I may be some time. I don't want you to wait for me. Michael'. Detachment at its finest."  
  
"Read it, Maria. It's unlikely, but it might tell us some more." Liz urged. Maria rolled her eyes, but obediently opened the envelope. Anything to please her best friend...  
  
"Dear Maria,  
Well I'm not quite sure what to say. Isabel has a dream, we go traipsing around the desert trying to find some weird thing, I come back to find that you're mad at me for running off.  
Don't be. I'll be back as soon as you know it.  
Michael"  
  
"God, he must be in love. That's the only time I've heard him write something that actually made sense," Alex quipped nervously.  
  
"Oh my god..." Maria said. "This means he cares for me, doesn't it? He must do." She put the letter down on the table, still staring at it as though she expected it to spontaneously combust.   
  
"Yeah, I think all three of us are loved at this moment in time" Alex said.   
  
"A whole week?" Liz asked quietly. "It must be something really important, but they never said what it was."  
  
Although they were loved, it still seemed as though some secrets could not be shared with them.  
  
"I guess that's what happens when you're Czechoslovakian," Maria said sadly. "They're still trying to break down the language barrier."  
  
"I guess we'll just have to wait..."  
  
  
"Is this a different way home?" Isobel asked drowsily as the three 'Czechoslovakians' drove through the dry and dusty desert. "I don't think we came through this town eariler."  
  
"I think you'll find that this town has houses with chimney's at the top of their roofs, Izzy," Michael said sardonically. "I knew you wouldn't give up so easily, Maxwell. What do you think, it's going to be perched on a roof like one of those weird chickens that tells the wind direction? 'Aliens, home is this way'?"  
  
"I've had another idea, and I think it might work," Max said defensively, as he drove into a tiny car park and killed the Jeep's engine. "I think there's a good chance that the Truth Teller would have been moved if it's as close to civilization as you said, Iz. Some tourist wanting to make a cheap buck, or something. This is Sand Wood, population 355. If something like the Truth Teller's been paraded around here, most likely in the antique shop that none of you paid any attention to, then we've got an excellent chance of someone remembering."  
  
"And if no-one remembers it? Do we go back to searching, or check the track records of every single housewife in Ohio, or wherever it was you said?" Isobel said. "It's a slim chance Max, and to be honest...what are the chances of this being the town? I don't recognize anywhere around here at all."  
  
"It's worth a try," Max said stubbornly, and climbing out of the car. "Even if we don't find it, I can't go to sleep tonight thinking that all we did today was search the desert half heartedly for three hours, and then go home. You can stay in the car, or come with me. It's your decision, but I can't just sit here."  
  
Although reluctantly, Isobel and Michael followed Max out of the car, out of the parking lot, and through the dusty streets of Sand Wood to a shop called 'Memories of Yesteryear'.  
  
Once inside, Max made a beeline for the owner, who seemed to be as old as time. His shining eyes betrayed that his mind was sharper than his declining body, and he watched the approach of the teenager with interest.  
  
"What can I help you with, son?" Angus Kirkland asked Max. "The name's Angus Kirkland, I'm the owner of this establishment."  
  
Max shifted his weight from one foot to the other, and said uncomfortably, "I'm looking for something specific, and I wondered if you would ever have sold anything like it. It's a small sphere, with shimmering colours, old fables believe it to have some sort of prophecying talents."  
  
Angus looked at the teenager, and the two behind him, who were obviously listening in. He beckoned them closer, and Michael and Isobel came to stand closer.  
  
"What you're describing to me sounds very much like a Truth Teller. It's been talked about for so long even I don't remember when it started. I can't help you with it's whereabouts now, but I do know that I stocked the only one I've ever heard of about thirty years ago."  
  
Even sceptical Michael and Isobel paid attention to Angus's next words, and couldn't believe their luck. Somehow Max's hunch had been correct, even though the Truth Teller wasn't here now, it had been.   
  
"It was brought to me by someone who I never saw again, he left town the following day. He ran a little hardware shop, and was selling up all his possessions, moving to somewhere on the East Coast. Anyway, I was intriuged by it, as anyone would be. The surface of it...reminds me of one of those fancy silk scarves girls like you wear," he glanced at Isobel. "Where they catch the light and the colours change, but this was so much more pronounced, from blue, to purple, to pink, and so it went on. I really didn't want to let it go."  
  
"What made you sell it then?" Michael asked. Angus glanced at him and said, "So impatient! It is lucky that I was just going to tell you before my interruption." Michael looked suitably chastened, and Angus continued with the three aliens once again paying close attention. "The business was going so badly, that I was selling everything I could get my hands on. So, even though I loved it dearly, it was time to set the Truth Teller free. I sold it to a little lady here with her husband, she'd be about seventy now I guess, if she's alive. They'd been hiking in the desert, and she fell in love with it. Paid enough to keep me in business for the remainder of the year, anyways." Mr Kirkland sighed, reflecting on his memories.  
  
"Mr Kirkland, this may be a long shot, but do you know of the Truth teller ever working for anyone?" Max asked earnestly. "Of anyone actually seeing things they wished to know that had gone before?"  
  
Angus sighed once more, and rested his chin on a long, tapered hand. "Once, I believed that I saw my mother. She resembled a candle flame, suddenly blown out in her prime, when she was at her brightest. But then I turned around, and saw a smoking candle which had not been there before. I don't know what happened, but that also triggered my decision to sell it. I would love to know whether the lady who I sold it to had any luck with her visions. The Teller only works for those gifted enough to place their faith in the past. Those who have problems letting go, if you will. One of my scarce reasons for believing in my vision, as my mother's suicide never seemed as though it was the truth..."  
  
Max, Michael and Isobel stood silently, until Isobel walked over to shake Angus's hand.   
  
"Thank you very much for telling us about the Truth Teller, Mr Kirkland. You've helped us a lot."  
  
"It was my pleasure. There is never any fresh blood in Sand Wood any more, just the same people living the same lives. I thank you for bringing sunshine into my day."  
  
Max and Michael mumbled their thanks, and they all walked out of the shop, blinking at the sudden, strong, sunlight.   
  
"If it was here, then where is it now?"   
  
To be continued...   
  
  



	4. Chapter 4: Bringing threads together

My Summer   
  
After the revelations of the Crashdown Cafe, Liz, Maria and Alex went their seperate ways, each thinking deeply about the day's events. The summer vacation was only five days old, and already the Czechoslovakians were off to find out...where the rest of the Czechoslovakians were.   
  
It had taken so much effort and energy to get Max, Michael and Isobel to open up to them, after Liz's shooting last year. And still there were things that weren't being shared. How could their friendship stay the same if whatever the aliens were looking for could somehow get them back to their home planet?  
  
These were the thoughts of Alex Manes as he lay on his unmade bed that evening. It was early, far too early to go to bed, but he felt strangely depressed after the day's events. At first he had thought that Isobel had been busy, too busy to call him. But now it seemed as though she had gone off on another one of her alien jaunts with Max and Michael, leaving him behind.  
  
Never mind the fact that one of the couple Alex-and Isobel was not of this earth, there was also the fact that they hadn't been getting on well recently. Isobel thought that he was even more embarrassing than he had been previously, and Alex secretly believed that Isobel had escaped from the planet FashionWorld.   
  
Although he hated to think so, considering what Liz thought about the alien field trip, he was beginning to think that it was for the best. He and Isobel had needed some time apart, and maybe after she'd ahd her space, they could begin to work things out.  
  
He refused to believe that Isobel's note had been a false reassurance, and that maybe things weren't as okay as he wanted them to be. He flat down refused to believe it.  
  
Alex wasn't going to let Isobel go. Alien discoveries and insane parental units apart, he loved her.   
  
Isn't that all that matters?  
  
  
Maria Deluca was extremely confused about the note she'd received from Michael, her on-off lust object.  
  
They'd broken up a while back, he was unable to cope with the relationship. Yet he had still written that note to her, to reassure her that he was going to be okay. What was that supposed to mean?  
  
She sat in the middle of her room, cross legged, and smelling one of her favourite oils, tangerine. Aromatherapy was the only thing that she could rely on these days. Liz was in a permanent state of insanity after Max had healed her almost a year ago, even when she and Max had been a couple she had never been the Liz Parker that Maria had known and loved since kindergarten. Alex was too busy sucking face with Isobel to even complain about his military father any more. Her mother had always had a slightly dubious state of mind, and now that she seemed to be embarking on a flirtation with Sheriff Valenti Maria's suspicions were proved, her mother was a nut case.  
  
Maria wasn't even sure what she wanted from Michael any more. Whether she wanted to try and stay friends with him, stay completely out of his way during the summer, or do her best to get things the way she had previously wanted.   
  
Her with him.  
  
Together, forever.  
  
  
Liz was distracted from her diary by a familiar rattling outside her home. It was the rattling of Max's car, an old Jeep that had seen its better days about twenty years ago.  
  
'I thought they weren't supposed to be back for another week? Unless they left on Friday and we didn't get the notes until today,' she mused. Never for one moment thinking that Max had stopped the car, and was coming to see her, she sat back down and picked up her pen, ready to continue her writings.  
  
She was hurt and angry that Max hadn't written to her, had left it to Isobel to do for him. What was it about her that kept on pushing him away? Whenever they seemed to be nearing a semblance of a normal relationship, something distracted him, and they were as distant as they had been before. She wrote down her innermost feelings, taking care to mention her new purchase in the diary.  
  
The Truth Teller had been placed on her windowsill, in pride of place so that it was one of the first things she saw when she woke up in the morning. Liz was fascinated by the colour combinations, it looked as though it was powered by fibre-optics changing colour, although Liz knew that it was impossible.  
  
"Hey," Liz almost jumped out of her skin at the sound of that voice. The voice that haunted her in her dreams, and tortured her during the day.   
  
"Hi," she said softly, turning around to face Max. "What are you doing back here?" she asked, trying to stop her excitement under control. "In the letters it said you wouldn't be back for a week."  
  
Max grimaced, and sat down gingerly next to her on her inflatable sofa. "We were, but there was a change of plan."  
  
"What were you doing anyway? What were you really looking for?" Liz asked Max. "And I want to know that truth. I'm your...friend,and I deserve to know," she said, trying to choose her words carefully.  
  
Max looked at her silently for a moment, and then spoke. "Isobel had a dream, and in it she found an object that allowed her to see the past. She saw two people who she swears were our parents. We took a drive out to the desert to see if we could find it. Michael and Isobel wanted to go home, so we drove back, but..."  
  
"You can tell me Max, go on," Liz urged, wanting to know what it was that had happened. He sighed and continued.  
  
"We came to a place called Sand Wood, and I, I don't know I had a hunch about this tiny little antiques place. God knows why I thought it would be there, but I persuaded the others to go in with me. The guy in there said he's sold something like it to a lady about thirty years ago."  
  
"Max, do you by any chance know what this thing was called?" Liz asked quickly. For if she wasn't mistaken, it sounded very much as though Max, Isobel and Michael had spent their day looking for the one thing she had bought that day,  
  
"A truth teller. What..." Max lost the ability to speak as Liz reached behind her, and took the Truth Teller off the window sill, and handed it carefully to him. He carefully felt the smooth as glass surface, and admired the swirling colours, before asking, "Liz, how in the world did you get this? Do you have any idea of what it can do?"  
  
Liz sat back down beside him, and explained about meeting Sylvia in the new shop in the mall, and what she had told them about the Teller.  
  
Max grabbed her hand suddenly, bringing her to her feet with unexpected force. "We have to get back to my house. Bring your cell phone and we'll call Maria, Michael and Alex on the way. It's no use in excluding you guys now, not after you've found this. If this can work for us..." he turned and met Liz's eyes with a long missed intensity, "I could find out where our home is."  
  
To be continued... 


	5. Chapter 5: The visitation

My Summer Part 5  
  
Summary: What happens when the aliens try to use the Truth Teller.  
  
Disclaimer: Again, I must tell you I own nothing. Someday, maybe. Just not today.  
  
Rating: I would say G, but I'm not too good at ratings. If anyone thinks I've overstepped any proverbial boundaries, please let me know.  
  
  
Everyone had made their way to the Evan's house as soon as they could after hearing the news, so  
quickly that Max and Liz were the last people to arrive. They made a strange gathering in the  
family room, Maria and Michael not daring to look at each other,   
Alex and Isobel holding hands uncomfortably, and Liz and Max sneaking little stares at each other  
every now and then. But, the discussion must be started soon, so Max took his place as leader   
and stood before them all.  
  
"We've found the Truth Teller. Liz and Maria bought it from some old antiques store in the   
mall today." Michael and Isobel looked shocked, whereas Alex, Maria and Liz couldn't help but   
feel pleased that they had found something the aliens were looking  
for. That they *had* something that the aliens were needing to use. This was such a rare   
occurence, most of the time they felt as though they were merely in the way of whichever part   
of their heritage they were looking for next. "We've got to figure out whether we have that   
gift, the one that lets us look back into the past. If we don't have that, then all we will see   
are the colour changes on the surface."  
  
"So how do we figure out whether we have these gifts or not?" Michael demanded. "Do we   
just touch the thing, or is there more to it than that?"  
  
Max looked at Liz hopefully, but she shook her head. "The lady I bought it from didn't tell  
us how to use it. I don't think she'd ever gotten it to work, so she wouldn't know."  
  
"So now what do we do?" Isobel asked. "We can't just sit here staring at it." She stood   
up and walked over to Liz, who had the Teller in her hand. "I want to try it. I had the dream   
about it, so it makes sense that I would be the one to have the gift."  
  
"What if somehow you get hurt?" Max asked his sister. He didn't want to risk losing anyone   
but how could they try to use the Teller without someone taking a risk?  
  
"If she get hurt, then we'll figure out what to do somehow. This could be momumental for us  
and you know it Max. Don't spoil it by trying to pull the whole 'I'm your leader and you will do   
as I say' thing again, okay? Cause I'm really not in the mood for it." Michael looked   
uncomfortably at Maria, who had remained silent throughout the discussion. He wanted to speak to  
her, to tell her the words that he simply couldn't have said in the letter. But she hadn't made   
any move to speak to him yet. He'd have to wait until the Teller was used.  
  
The Truth Teller...its prophecying qualities may not be up to scratch, but in giving visions  
of the future, there was no other in comparision. It had only ever worked for certain people, none of   
whom were human. It had come with the spaceship crash over fifty years ago, one of the artefacts   
that had been left behind after the government did their best to comb the surrounding area, but   
failed miserably. Three people had owned it since then, Angus Kirkland, Sophia, and Kirk   
Loweston, who had owned the hardware store in Sand Wood many years ago.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	6. Chapter 6: The aftermath

My Summer Part 6  
  
Summary: The truth about Isobel's foray to their home planet.  
  
Disclaimer: Hasn't changed, I still own nothing.  
  
Rating: G  
  
Thank You's: To Chloe, for keeping me sane over the last week.  
  
  
Maria, Liz and Alex had driven themselves to distraction waiting for their friends to return. They certainly weren't prepared for Max and Michael to yell down the staircase,  
  
"Get up here now, you guys!"  
  
Looking at each other in confusion, they stood up, and led by Liz, sprinted up the stairs to see Max carrying Isobel out of her room, Michael quickly shutting the door behind them.  
  
"What happened to her?" Liz asked, as Max led the way to his own bedroom, and gently laid his sister on his bed.  
  
"She got the Teller to work, but now it's gone. She was talking to someone that we couldn't see, and then suddenly there was this flash of blue light. Then this...I don't know, this cloud came out of nowhere and formed around her. When I went to pick her up to get her out of there, Michael noticed that the Teller had gone."  
  
Alex moved closer to Isobel, whose eyes were still closed, her face calm and peaceful. "Do you think that we should wake her up or leave her to sleep?"  
  
"I think that we should leave her..." Maria started to say, but as it turned out, there was no need. Isobel gave a small cough, and slowly opened her eyes. For a moment she looked around, not recognising where she was or remembering what had happened. Then in a flash it cam crashing down upon her, and she said,  
  
"Max? Michael? Where's the Teller? Why am I here, what happened to me?"  
  
"Calm down, Iz," Max soothed, moving to sit down beside her on his bed. "We don't know where the Teller is, we were kinda hoping that you could tell us what happened to it, and to you for that matter. Who were you talking to before you, I don't know...came back here?"  
  
Isobel narrowed her eyes, and thought deeply for a moment. "I don't know who he was, but I'm positive that he spoke to me in English. It was the same place as the one in my dream, but not so busy. I got there too late, the spaceship had already gone. He looked like a convential alien, I guess. The type that you see on soda cans in every shop in Roswell. Green skin, huge black eyes, but no antennae."  
  
"What did you say to each other?" Alex asked, sitting on the other side of her.  
  
"I asked him where my parents were. Our parents, sorry Max. He said that they had left earlier, on their way to Earth. They were going to try to colonise it, or something. He also said that whatever happened now was out of anyone's control. Then..." Isobel strugled to keep her emotions under check,"then he said that he wanted me to return the Teller to its rightful place."  
  
"We heard your side of the converstaion," Michael murmured. "You asked him why it was that he wanted the Teller"  
  
"Yeah, yeah I did. He said that it would fall into the wrong hands if I let it remain on Earth for any longer. It was so strange thought, he didn't even query who I was or ask who my parents were. It was as though he already knew. So...I gave it to him, because what he said next really scared me."  
  
"What did he say, Iz?" Max pressed softly, keeping his eyes fixated on his sister's face, not allowing himself to be disracted by Liz or anyone.  
  
"He said, well basically, it was that if I kept the Teller, I'd be encouraging us to live in the past even more than we do now. He said that some things about the crash of the ship are never meant to be known, but thatI ahd the gift to find them out. So he needed the Teller back in its rightful place, on our planet."  
  
"I don't believe it," Michael said angrily. "So when you cut down to the chase, he was saying that we should live human lives, and never even give a moment's thought about where we come from or who we really are. How are we supposed to do that?"  
  
"He said that some day, something would happen that would make us understand," Isobel said, tears once again threatening to spill over onto her cheeks.  
  
She was the first of three to make the conscious move into human life, a virtual reality for them.   
  
Both Max and Alex sat beisde her. Just one word needed to pass her lips, and she'd receive instant comfort from either of them.  
  
The alien past, or the human future?  
  
She reached for Alex, and found instant comfort in his comforting embrace.  
  
"We've lost the Teller," Max said to himself, unaware of Isobel's previous emotional turmoil. "So now how are we supposed to find out anything at all?"  
  
"Maybe we shouldn't try anything for a while," Isobel suggested. "We have three months of uninterrupted summer ahead of us, remember that Max. And you have to admit that this year has been hard on all of us, Americans included," she smiled at Maria and Liz, standing uncomfortably by the door, and more tenderly at Alex by her side. "Let's just take a break, shall we?"  
  
Max looked disbelievingly at his sister. He was shocked by her sudden u-turn on their history, but nothing could have prepared him for what Michael said next.  
  
"I agree with Iz," he said, glancing at Maria who met his eyes for one perfect moment, then turned away with a tiny smile playing on her lips. "I'm absolutely exhausted. So let's leave it for a while, and see where the summer takes us. No active searching."  
  
Max sighed. It seemed that yet again he'd been outvoted, by the two people in the world that he thought he could rely on for anything.  
  
But there was still one option for a trustworthy person in this world...  
  
Some free time would provide him with ample time to have the first decent conversation with Liz Parker in months. Still, he couldn't believe that the words he was thinking were about to come out of his mouth.  
  
"Okay. No active searching." 


	7. Chapter 7: What comes afterwards

My Summer Part 7  
  
Summary: Tying up of loose ends.  
  
Disclaimer: Do I have to say this again? None of this belongs to me!  
  
Rating: G  
  
Feedback: Gratefully received at flyingchopstick@hotmail.com. Does anyone think that a sequel would be a good idea? Let me know!  
  
  
It had been five days since the Truth Teller had been discovered, used, and then lost again. Roswell still looked the same, the themed shops didn't disappear just because three aliens had stopped searching for their home, having found it, but were told that they were not meant to be there. Life had to go on, especially because it wasn't public knowledge that there were three aliens living in Roswell.   
  
Isobel and Alex...well what could you say about them? They hadn't spoken about the issues which were previously so important. Alex knew that Isobel had been experiencing conflicts between her life on Earth and the one that she knew she should have been searching for. Isobel knew that Alex was too emotionally held-back to admit to her how much they cared. I saw them yesterday, they were sitting in the Crashdown Cafe. I don't know how she did it, but Isobel had managed to perasuade Alex to try chocolate ice-cream with Tabasco sauce. The things that boy will do for love...or for a certain Isobel Evans who is still trying to believe that her rightful home is on Earth. How wrong she is...  
  
Michael and Maria...now there was a challenge. But they too were witnessed by me yesterday, when two people are working in such close proximity it's hard to keep the ice from thawing. Maria doesn't want to be abandoned, and I would feel the same. But that's one of the things about going out with an alien. That strange edge of unpredictableness that only Michael can provide. Michael needs the stability of Maria, he needs her. There is no other way to describe them, but as soulmates. Communication will never be their strong point, as will agreeing with each other. But the world would be so boring if it was perfect, and no-one would have it any other way.  
  
Max and Liz...they are a completely different story. They're more than soulmates, they should be destined to be together. No matter what happens, the world will conspire to get them together. But the Crashdown has not been graced with the presence of Max Evans since before the Truth Teller was found. The promises he made that night were eventually discovered to be empty, and his courage false. No matter what kind of pep talk he gave himself, Max only ever go as far as the top of the street where the Crashdown was located, and the same went for the road where Liz's house was. Liz was also guilty, she worked so hard and so often that all thoughts of Max Evans seemed certain to be dispelled from her mind. But they weren't, and she remained unhappy, as did he.  
  
Yet, the summer is only a week old. If I can conspire with the heavens, then we will surely acheive destiny before the sun rises for the autumn. Who knows what accidental discoveries will be made.  
  
And who am I?  
  
You'll just have to wait and see.  
  
Author's hastily scribbled notes: Even I don't know who the person writing that was. It just came out onto the keyboard. Any suggestions/comments/personal wishes sent to flyingchopstick@hotmail.com will be gratefully received and replied to. Thanx! 


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